Rambles about games…

Category: QotM

*Question of the Month is the sound of rain on a tent at a camping trip organised by LaterLevels

Unfortunately I just didn’t get around to answering last month’s question, which was double-bad because the format has been all shaken up and poured over ice; from the beginning of the year, a star blogger gets to both set the question and make their decision on who’s managed to best answer that month’s conundrum. For February I have to try and impress Kevin from over on The Mental Attic. The QotM master post gives you something of a glimpse into the world of our quizzing puppet-master for this month who asks:

You ate everything during Christmas so now have to diet and work it all off; which video game character do you recruit as your personal trainer to get you back into shape?

*Question of the Month is that first mince pie of the season served up by Later Levels December’s ‘Question of the Month’ seems to have taken a festive turn looking to the jolly gentleman clad in red and asking “Is he really pulling his weight? Couldn’t someone else… say from the world of gaming do a much better job?“. Tough as it is on the … Continue reading QotM*: Which Video Game Character Would do a Better Job Than Santa?

*Question of the Month is a metaphorical puppy let loose in a ball-pool orchestrated by Later Levels

As always the game blogging community isn’t afraid to tackle the really big issues of our chosen sphere of interest. For November we’re looking at fashion choices, but not the most stylish, or sexiest, … Or even those outfits that we as gamers would like to steal from our favourite digital protagonists and strut around in from time to time (answer to all three is Link’s barbarian armour set from BotW). For this question we’ve been asked to come up with the character who has just made a plain bad choice because of the practicalities of their chosen activity. Continue reading “QotM*: Poor Wardrobe Selection”

*Question of the Month is the blogging equivalent of a weaponised Furby who has disobeyed orders and gone rogue, all to the delight of those architects of anarchy at Later Levels

I’m not one for spoiling the magic, but for those of you who might want to peek behind the curtain into this strange gaming blogging world, I will say that this question caused quite a stir amongst the regular participants; there was some question over what constituted an NPC in this context. I know you’re all shouting at your monitors that surely it’s pretty obvious, but the concept of ‘Non-Playable Character’ is open to interpretation and there are certainly examples of entities within games that are both ‘characters’ and ‘non-playable’ that I wouldn’t class as an NPC. Continue reading “QotM*: Who is the Most Memorable Video Game NPC?”

*Question of the month is the blogging equivalent of that cup of coffee in the middle of a tedious job brought to you by those good people over at Later Levels… with a Jammy Dodger on the side… Game sequels tend to get a raw deal, developers are pressured into slapping a ‘2’ on the end of their successful title, building on the original, keeping it … Continue reading QotM*: Which Videogame Should Have Had a Sequel?

*QotM is some kind of warming stew that’s sitting in a slow cooker waiting for you on a cold day brewed up by Later Levels.

It’s time for July’s round of ‘Question of the Month’ which has pitched some of the greatest blogging minds against each other in cerebral combat to answer the question “Which video game has the best idle animation?”.

I know that idle animations are present in modern gaming, but I can’t help but associate them with the 16-bit era. Something about wringing every last bit of enjoyment from a game at that time meant that quirks like idle animations & easter eggs held more wonder in games where deviation from the ‘game’s formula’ had a more significant resource cost. I guess it was also the era when idle animations first appeared. Whatever the reason, the question immediately made me think of my days with the Sega MegaDrive, so it is after careful consideration that I have come up with my nomination for the best video game idle animation, and in accordance with the normal rules, here it is in under 100 words:

*Question of the month is some kind of marshmallow joined to another marshmallow… a “doublemellow”…. thought up by Later Levels Spoiler Warning: This post talks about a plot twist in PlayStation Classic ‘Metal Gear Solid”… read no further if you want to remain in the dark! For this month’s question those masters of the cerebral poser over at Later Levels have asked which game has the most … Continue reading QotM*: Which Videogame Contains the Most Surprising Plot Twist